Book cover illustration and design. The brief asked for a botanical theme, maybe generic foliage, maybe flowers. They liked the idea of somehow including gold highlights and a dark background. They wanted a decorative design, something worthy of a gift book, classical with an opulent feel. A background repeating pattern was one idea suggested, and also the idea of botanicals and type blending together. 

I did some research into which flowers get mentioned in the sonnets, and it came down to roses (which we decided was too romantic which they wanted to avoid) violets and lilies. I did 3 visual designs, one using generic gold leaves hanging down the cover, one with a background pattern of violets, and this one. I knew straight away I wanted to try a symmetrical design with the flowers and foliage curving around the typography, and filling the spaces to create a perfectly balanced design. When I looked at pictures of lilies, I decided this particular variety would work well. They have a simple elegance to them and the colours work well against the dark blue background. The gold swirls help to add that classical, opulent feel. 

A small alteration was needed to add the Judi Dench quote in, but that was all. The cover was well received by everyone in-house and the authors, and it has so far proved to be a best-seller for the publishers. I couldn't be happier, it was a dream job.

As you can see in the photo below, all the swirls, the title and authors were gold foiled on the final printed cover.